The interaction of light with semiconductor materials has been an important innovation. Silicon imaging devices are used in various technologies, such as digital cameras, optical mice, video cameras, cell phones, and the like. Charge-coupled devices (CCDs) were widely used in digital imaging, and were later improved upon by complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) imagers having increased performance. CMOS sensors are typically manufactured from silicon and can covert visible incident light into a photocurrent and ultimately into a digital image. Silicon-based technologies for detecting infrared incident electromagnetic radiation have been problematic, in part, because silicon is an indirect bandgap semiconductor having a bandgap of about 1.1 eV. Thus, the absorption of electromagnetic radiation having wavelengths of greater than about 1100 nm is, therefore, very low in silicon.